Saturday, June 30, 2018

Keepin' It Rollin'


The Great Western Move of 2018 continues.

When you move, you really want to get all your stuff in the back of the truck, drive to your new house, and unload it all. Even that is a challenge, but you add in an infant, two pit stops for more unloading and loading, AND a nail in the moving truck's tire, and you have one hellish move.

The nail was in the tire when we picked the truck up from Enterprise. A. noticed the soft tire (but not the nail yet) and asked them to check on it before we took the truck. They filled the tire, but didn't see the nail. A. saw it two hours down the road when we were stopped at a gas station.

Four hours later (nationwide chains are not my favorite), we finally had a new tire. This meant that instead of getting to our house in the north at 2 p.m. to load the truck, we got there at 6 p.m. And then spent the next five hours loading the truck (mostly A.) and finishing packing the house, plus cleaning (mostly me).

For those keeping track, that meant we worked until 11 p.m. And then Poppy inexplicably decided she was done sleeping for awhile exactly as we moved the mattress into the living room to sleep at 11:05 p.m.

So basically, there was no sleep on Thursday night.

At six the next morning, we were back at it, finally finishing up in a mad rush at exactly 11 a.m. The truck was completely full and not all that carefully arranged*. We booked it back to Blackrock (no nails this time, hooray), getting back at 5:30 p.m.

After a life-saving dinner the MiL had made--food was not the priority during our northern moving blitz--we started unloading a third of the truck with things that are staying at Blackrock. But first we had to take out all the miscellaneous things that had been piled in front of the rugs and beds and A.'s work papers that had to come out. And then we had to put all those miscellaneous things back in.

I say "we," but it was mostly A., while I dealt with our frankly hysterical children and tried to direct A. regarding what was staying and what was going.

He finished at 9:30 p.m.

At 9 a.m., he and Cubby started off for their drive to New Mexico. They're due to stop in Wisconsin at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning to pick up furniture at my aunt and uncle's house, before continuing to New Mexico.

I will not be there to help with the unloading, obviously--and I can't say I'm sorry about that--but I contacted the secretary at the school to ask if there were any high school kids who might want to earn some money helping A. with the furniture that requires two people. She gave me the number of our neighbor, who has both a husband and a son who can help.

Yay for small towns.

So the moving continues, although my part of it is over for now. Until we get to New Mexico and I have to unpack all the very-hastily "packed" boxes and bags, and find places for it all.

But I won't think about that now. I'll think about it then.

Godspeed, A. and Cubby. May the road rise up to meet you and the nails stay out of your tires.

* One reason it was so full is because when you move from a rural area, there is no leaving things for the trash collection or for free for neighbors. Not enough neighbors and no trash collection. It all, including the bags of garbage, had to go in the truck.

5 comments:

  1. May I ask where in Wisconsin the stop-off might be? If it's close to me, I'll say hello and offer fresh veggie snacks for the road. If it's not, I'll just wave in their general direction and think good thoughts and good vibes.

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  2. Darlington, which I believe isn't close to anywhere. Good thoughts are always appreciated, though.

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  3. Hope all goes well for A. & Cubby.
    Linda

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  4. This is an epic trip! I bet Cubby sees it is a huge adventure. He will always remember it! I had no idea of the obvious until you stated it, about leaving things behind? You couldn't leave your rubbish and recycling for notmal pick up? Best of best luck with it all!!! J x

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  5. Europafox: There is no normal pick-up. In rural areas, you can either pay to have a private company pick up your trash and recycling--which we have never done--or bring it to the dump yourself (and still pay a per-bag fee, but it's a lot less than the garbage company pick-up rates). But the dump is only open two mornings a week, and Friday was not one of those days in our northern township. Thus, we had to haul everything back south with us and I brought it to the dump this morning.

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